Translation and comments by Ad Blankestijn
(version September 2022)
"Sleep-together Vine" of "Meeting Slope Hill,"
isn't there some way,
without anyone knowing,
I can entwine you in my arms?
na ni shi owaba
Ausakayama no
sanekazura
hito ni shirarede
kuru yoshi mo gana
逢坂山の
さねかづら
人にしられで
くるよしもがな
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[Kadsura japonica]
There is a head-note attached to this poem which reads "Sent to a woman's house." It was usual to attach poems sent to others to some object, as a flower, and in this case the poem was probably attached to an actual piece of the Kadsura Japonica vine.
Although some commentators / translators interpret the last line in the sense that it is the poet who is "reeling in" his beloved, like a vine, in the actual Heian situation that was impossible. As we saw in earlier poems, women of status kept separate residences where they were visited not only by lovers, but even by their husbands; aristocratic women were quite immobile and never left their houses, certainly not for trysts - the only exception were pilgrimages to Kannon temples.
A difficult-to-translate poem, because it seeks after extreme artificiality by using an overabundance of double entendres (kakekotoba). See the "Notes" below.
Notes
- Osakayama: does not refer to Osaka, but points again at the "Ausaka" or
"Meeting Slope" on the highway between present-day Kyoto and Otsu,
which also figures prominently in poem 10. Here it is a pun on the coming together of a man and a woman.
- Sanekazura: a specific Japanese plant, "Kadsura Japonica." It has deep green, glossy leaves and is cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens. Extract from this plant is also used for traditional Japanese washi paper making. In our poem only its rope-like quality is alluded to, its ability to "pull" the poet towards his beloved. There is however a second sly allusion here: the name of the plant starts with the elements "sa ne" which can also mean "come, sleep!," so this becomes a rather open declaration of the poet's intention.
- Kuru: means "to come" (来る), but is a homonym with another kuru which means "to reel in, to entwine" (繰る).
- Yoshi: method.
- Mo ga na: expresses a wish. So: "I wish there was a way to do it."
The poet
Fujiwara no Sadakata, also known as "Sanjo Udaijin" or Sanjo Minister of the Right because his residence was located in Sanjo Street in Heiankyo, was the second son of Fujiwara no Takafuji, and the cousin and father-in-law of Fujiwara no Kanesuke (poem 27). His son Asatada was also a poet (see poem 44). He first held several governmental positions in the provinces before rising to high office in the capital. Sadakata appears in several stories in The Tales of Yamato. He has 19 poems in imperial waka anthologies and his personal collection of poems is also extant.Visiting
References: Pictures of the Heart, The Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image by Joshua S. Mostow (University of Hawai'i Press, 1996); Traditional Japanese Poetry, An Anthology, by Steven D. Carter (Stanford University Press, 1991); Hyakunin Isshu by Inoue Muneo, etc. (Shinchosha, 1990); Genshoku Hyakunin Isshu by Suzuki Hideo, etc. (Buneido, 1997); Ogura Hyakunin Isshu at Japanese Text Initiative (University of Virginia Library Etext Center); Hyakunin Isshu wo aruku by Shimaoka Shin (Kofusha Shuppan); Hyakunin Isshu, Ocho waka kara chusei waka e by Inoue Muneo (Chikuma Shoin, 2004); Basho's Haiku (2 vols) by Toshiharu Oseko (Maruzen, 1990); The Ise Stories by Joshua S. Mostow and Royall Tyler (University of Hawai'i Press, 2010); Kokin Wakashu, The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough (Stanford University Press, 1985); Kokinshu, A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern by Laurel Rasplica Rodd and Mary Catherine Henkenius (University of Tokyo Press, 1984); Kokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1994); Shinkokin Wakashu (Shogakkan, 1995); Taketori Monogatari-Ise Monogatari-Yamato Monogatari-Heichu Monogatari (Shogakkan, 1994).